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1986 FIFA World Cup qualification

Field	Value
tourney_name	1986 FIFA World Cup qualification
num_teams	121
confederations	6
matches	308
goals	801
top_scorer	DEN Preben Elkjær
HON Jose Roberto Figueroa (8 goals each)
prevseason	1982
nextseason	1990

HON Jose Roberto Figueroa (8 goals each)

121 teams entered the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, competing for 24 places in the final tournament. Mexico, as the hosts, and Italy, as the defending champions, qualified automatically, leaving 22 spots open for competition. The draw took place on 7 December 1983 in Zürich, Switzerland.

The 24 spots available in the 1986 World Cup would be distributed among the continental zones as follows:

Europe (UEFA): 13.5 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier Italy, while the other 12.5 places were contested by 32 teams. The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from OFC).
South America (CONMEBOL): 4 places, contested by 10 teams.
North, Central America, and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 2 places, 1 of them went to automatic qualifier Mexico, while the other place was contested by 17 teams.
Africa (CAF): 2 places, contested by 29 teams.
Asia (AFC): 2 places, contested by 27 teams.
Oceania (OFC): 0.5 place, contested by 4 teams (including Israel and Chinese Taipei). The winner of the 0.5 place would advance to the intercontinental play-offs (against a team from UEFA).

A total of 110 teams played at least one qualifying match. A total of 308 qualifying matches were played, and 801 goals were scored (an average of 2.60 per match).

Confederation qualification

AFC

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (AFC)

:Iraq and Korea Republic qualified.

CAF

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (CAF)

:Algeria and Morocco qualified.

CONCACAF

Main article: 1985 CONCACAF Championship qualification, 1985 CONCACAF Championship

:Canada qualified.

CONMEBOL

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)

:Group 1 – Argentina qualified. Peru and Colombia advanced to the CONMEBOL play-offs. :Group 2 – Uruguay qualified. Chile advanced to the CONMEBOL play-offs. :Group 3 – Brazil qualified. Paraguay advanced to the CONMEBOL play-offs. :Play-offs – Paraguay qualified over Chile, Colombia and Peru.

OFC

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (OFC)

:Australia advanced to the UEFA–OFC intercontinental play-off

UEFA

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA)

:Group 1 – Poland qualified. Belgium advanced to the UEFA play-offs. :Group 2 – West Germany and Portugal qualified. :Group 3 – England and Northern Ireland qualified. :Group 4 – France and Bulgaria qualified. :Group 5 – Hungary qualified. Netherlands advanced to the UEFA play-offs. :Group 6 – Denmark and USSR qualified. :Group 7 – Spain qualified. Scotland advanced to the UEFA–OFC intercontinental play-off. :Play-offs – Belgium qualified over Netherlands.

Inter-confederation play-offs: UEFA v OFC

Main article: 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification (UEFA–OFC play-off)

The two teams would play against each other on a home-and-away basis. The winner qualified for the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Qualified teams

The following 24 teams qualified for the 1986 FIFA World Cup:

Team	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Streak	Last appearance
	18 October 1985	2nd	2	1982
	30 June 1985	9th	4	1982
	20 November 1985	7th	2	1982
	23 June 1985	13th	13	1982
	28 September 1985	5th	1	1974
	14 September 1985	1st	1	—
	13 November 1985	1st	1	—
	16 October 1985	8th	2	1982
	16 November 1985	9th	3	1982
	17 April 1985	9th	3	1982
	29 November 1985	1st	1	—
(defending champions)	11 July 1982	11th	7	1982
	3 November 1985	2nd	1	1954
(hosts)	20 May 1983	9th	1	1978
	18 October 1985	2nd	1	1970
	13 November 1985	3rd	2	1982
	17 November 1985	4th	1	1958
	11 September 1985	5th	4	1982
	16 October 1985	2nd	1	1966
	4 December 1985	6th	4	1982
	25 September 1985	7th	3	1982
	7 April 1985	8th	1	1974
	30 October 1985	6th	2	1982
	25 September 1985	11th	9	1982

(h) – qualified automatically as hosts

Top goalscorers

;8 goals

DEN Preben Elkjær
HON Jose Roberto Figueroa

;7 goals

CHI Jorge Orlando Aravena Plaza
HKG Lau Wing-Yip

;6 goals

CHN Zhao Dayu
GDR Rainer Ernst

;5 goals

AUS John Kosmina
AUS Dave Mitchell
ENG Bryan Robson
ISR Zahi Armeli
JPN Kazushi Kimura
POR Fernando Gomes
URS Oleh Protasov
TUN Bassam Jeridi

Notes

West Germany lost a World Cup qualifying match for the first time on 16 October 1985, when they were defeated 0–1 by Portugal in Stuttgart, in what was their 37th World Cup qualifier (including games played by Germany before World War II). Of the other three losses that the (now-reunified) German team suffered in the competition, two also took place on home soil: 1–5 to England in Munich in 2001, and 1–2 to North Macedonia in Duisburg in 2021, and one away: 0-2 to Slovakia in Bratislava in 2025. With only four losses in over 100 games, Germany remains the team with by far the lowest loss ratio in the FIFA World Cup qualification.
Scotland manager Jock Stein died during their qualifier at Wales, suffering a heart attack immediately after the Scots scored a late equaliser.
Iraq qualified to their only World Cup up to date.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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